


Aqueous

by Darkbeetlebot



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Blood and Gore, Blood and Violence, Dark, Death, Fake Character Death, Fantasy, Gen, Gore, Graphic Description, Grimdark, Magic, Mystery, Psychological Torture, Time Loop, Torture, Violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-17
Updated: 2017-09-16
Packaged: 2018-12-30 16:15:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12112461
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkbeetlebot/pseuds/Darkbeetlebot
Summary: Marisa finds herself trapped in an endless loop of dying in increasingly horrific manners. Can she solve the mystery of the death-induced time loop or forever be trapped in an inhumane torturous curse?





	1. Chapter 1

It has been at least 5 years since the Scarlet Mist incident that revealed the Scarlet Devil Mansion and what began Marisa's regular ransacking of the library there. The ransacking is an irregular activity; she'll decide to come over whenever she runs out of books to read that she had previously stolen, presumably. She could also come out of boredom to either annoy the residents or pillage some more items. This usually ends in a battle of Danmaku with Marisa more than often being the victor due to her ridiculously overpowered Master Spark that she happens to also overuse. Patchouli is the proprietor of said library and has closed it off from public access, for good reason. Marisa disregards this and flies in anyways. If Patchouli were not both anemic _and_ asthmatic, she would easily be able to overcome Marisa. This being the case, however, she is nearly powerless to stop it without the help of her familiars and the other residents. They don't help much, either.

On this particular but unspecified day, it seems as though Patchouli is rather tired. She seems to be in bad shape and fittingly agitated. It could be for any number of reasons, but that's not really important. After all, it could just allow us to repeatedly backtrack to different sources to point the blame of this incident at. Now what would that solve? Nothing, that's what; playing prosecutor doesn't help anybody! Alas, nothing can really stop this from happening. Fate has decided it, fate that not even Remilia can manipulate.

It's a rather cloudy day, about 17:00, when Marisa decided to take her trip to the mansion that day. The sky was only a bit bleak and signaled a storm coming within the next hour or two with a wall of black and grey clouds coming from the distance to the side of where she looks at them from. She's flying there on her trademark broom, shooting down any stray bogies that may try to attack her. It's all well and good until she reaches the mansion. The air seems to be incredibly tense, even the gate guard Meiling is more alert. Despite being much stronger and more focused than usual, she is dealt with by a swift Master Spark to the face. Inside, the fairies are practically going crazy! It's like the Scarlet Mist incident again, but without the actual incident. She goes through them as usual, still without much trouble. She travels further and further into the mansion that seems to have sprung to life either from the tense atmosphere or the incoming storm or maybe something else, until she reaches the library. The dark and usually well guarded library seems rather tranquil as opposed to usual with little to no things attacking her.

With this unsettling and unusual peace of existence in the usually powerful space, Marisa relaxes herself and nearly lets go, but remembers why she came. She does as wanted and lands, being careful to not be detected by anything. She snoops around with an empty sack, scooping up anything she deems worthy to "borrow" with less than careful finesse. It takes sneaking for about 5 or so minutes before she catches a glimpse of someone holding up a candle and travelling in the corridors of the maze-like library. She takes a hasty diving jump and stays silent, still trying to stay hidden. "Koakuma?" the familiar voice weakly shouts; it echoes through the large and dank place with no reply. She calls again, "Koakuma?" with a slur on the last syllable. "Is that you, Koakuma?" she slurs on the last syllables of most of the words. Slowly, the dark girl limps past Marisa with an incredibly dazed look that is barely visible. Marisa sighs in relief of not being caught and begins to crawl out...but one of the books in a bookcase falls out and alerts the girl! Marisa freezes instinctively as she turns around and catches her. "Who..." she begins to inquisitively aks "Marisa?"

Marisa chuckles and stands up, rubbing the back of her head and replying, "Oh...h-hey, Patche!" A small silence ensues, so Marisa breaks it with the bland question, "So...how are you?" she adds effect at the end with "Ze?"

Patchouli groans painfully and sneers at her with absolute disgust, "Just get out." It really hits Marisa to see her in such a terrible mood, but even more to hear that. It's not uncharacteristic, but simply cold and something that nobody likes to hear.

"Hey," Marisa calls to her, running forward and grabbing her shoulder before she can turn back around "aren't you going to put up a fight?" She's not honestly smiling for once and has her eyebrows raised up to look worried.

"Just get out; I don't feel like dealing with you." Patchouli insists, coldly again. She really looks like a walking corpse, completely pale and with tired eyes. She tries to push Marisa away with a small struggle and mostly succeeds before noticing the sack. " **What is that**?" she boldly and angrily asks.

Marisa begins to metaphorically sweat a bit and tense up, "Nothing, nothing!" She attempts to hide the sack and its contents from Patchouli as to not agitate her further than it appears she is.

Patchouli grows angry, instead, at her incompliance, "No, show me." She tries to circle around Marisa and peek into it, "Are you stealing my books again, you little **rat**?"

Marisa is a little put off by her sudden name-calling but tries to keep a cheery demeanor while subconsciously admitting to that accusation and reassuring her, "Don't worry, I'll give them back when I'm done!"

Patchouli instantly retorts right at her face, yelling, " **What** , like the rest of my books that you ' **borrowed**?' The ones that are **still** missing!?" She growls intensely with her teeth gritted after scolding her lightly. "No, you put those down **right now**."

Marisa is put off again by her increasingly hostile attitude but presses on. This time, however, she tries to provoke Patchouli in the hopes of rousing a Danmaku battle, "Oh? How are you going to make me?" She puts on this smug look that attempts to obviously portray her meaning, but it falls short with looking arrogant and assholish instead. This makes Patchouli snap. She takes the candle she's holding and _smashes it strait into Marisa's cheek, aiming at her eye_. The literally incendiary attack makes Marisa recoil with a shriek from the stinging heat that leaves a small burn. With that recoil she drops the sack, but also steps back and trips over it to land on her back and make a pained yelp. "Wh-What?" she asks honestly in sheer confusion as to what just happened.

Patchouli slowly walks next to and above her and replies to her earlier provocation, " **This**." With that, she takes up the book she had been handling in the darkness, crouches down, and beats Marisa's face in with the flat of the book. Obviously, Marisa cannot see in this incredibly dark environment and is completely helpless to what's being done to her. As she gets unexpectedly beat by Patchouli's book, she starts to flail wildly and tries to protect her face from the sudden bludgeoning. In trying to protect herself, Marisa is able to feel her own face and realizes that the initial strike had given her a minor nosebleed. Her unseeable expression is that of more confusion and a little horror. She isn't trying to fight back, just trying to keep from requiring a new nose. This may be moot, however, as the initial hit was surprisingly hard and might have already done enough damage. The beating of an uncounted amount of merciless strikes goes on for about a minute before Patchouli finally grows tired and throws one last weak strike before dropping it and standing back up and ordering, "Put them back." During the beating, Marisa was yelping again and again, pleading for her to stop.

Marisa coughs after her order and still attempts to question her, "What the hell are you doing!?" in an airy and shocked tone.

"You know what?" Patchouli begins to rant, still catching her breath and obviously still angry despite having just beat her into a nosebleed. She takes in a deep breath and then continues, "You are more than just a bitch. You are a lonely, dirty, low-down thief with no concern for anybody but yourself." She takes a small break, but resumes in a higher pitch, "That carefree, happy-go-lucky attitude of yours begs the question of **how the FUCK** you manage to pull off such an act as to trick people into not **killing you** and instead just waiting politely for you to die. It just makes me want to end you that much more!" After that mouthful, she takes in yet another breath, "I am so sick and tired of dealing with you, so sick and tired of you just acting like it's nothing and saying, 'You'll have them back when I die!' Well, guess what? You be **better off dead!** " Patchouli starts to pant from her small speech, and Marisa stands up, holding her nose while frowning with her eyebrows raised in a worryful way. Her eyes are wide open, staring at Patchouli and tearing up a little. Moments later, she reaches out only for Patchouli to lash out again, " **NO!** You black and white **whore**! Condescending, lying, I've had enough of you and your rat ass almost enough to kill you right here and now! How the hell does anybody love you!? How do they even remotely **like** you? I bet they don't. I bet they don't even care about you, I bet that you wouldn't be missed one **bit** if you were to disappear. Go ahead, do it! I don't care, nobody else does, just disappear. **Just drop dead!** "

After that rant, Patchouli doubles over breathlessly and Marisa is left standing, frozen, staring off into nothing without knowing what to do, how to respond to that. She just stands there, stuttering while her nose bleeds slowly. It only takes about ten seconds before she too drops to her knees while starting to well up and ask, "W-What?" Rhetorically. She's dumbfounded that she could be so cold and that she would just lash out like that. "No...they don't hate me." She quietly murmurs, trying to argue against her.

Patchouli immediately retorts with another attack, "I bet they do! I bet they secretly hate your guts!"

Marisa repeats that small word in her quiet voice, "No-" but is cut off by Patchouli again.

"No, I know they do! We all get together and mock you and tell stories about how you fail so much and can't get any customers at your shop because you're so much of a bitch! We laugh about your hoarding problem and hope that you'll suffocate under your own pile of crap! You'll die alone and there's nothing you can do about it!" She's spitting almost and sounds even more aggressive than the previous rant, but now she's simply trying to insult and break her into behaving.

Marisa shakes her head and flings small tears about several times, rubbing her eyes and insisting, "No, no, no, no, no..." while Patchouli continues to pelt her with insults and convincing lies that grow to be more and more aggressive and hurtful. Unbeknownst to them, Sakuya has been standing in the shadowy background, listening still to Patchouli trying to break the girl.

Eventually, Patchouli gets on her for interpersonal afflictions, now standing up and making her way to Marisa with her weaponized book raised up again. She begins to beat Marisa on the head harshly and with a surprising amount of strength. It doesn't help that the thing is thick and heavy enough to leave a mark. She scolds while striking her, "Do you have any idea what you have put me through? You've stolen at least ten percent of my entire library by now! There are so many empty slots, so many times that I have been left with nothing but loneliness, so much information that is lost to your dirty hands, never to be seen again! You don't even take care of them, do you?"

Instinctively, Marisa reaches up and covers her head up to prevent a concussion, now crying ever so slightly while Patchouli beats her as mercilessly and angrily as she can muster. Marisa cries out hesitantly, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, stop it already!" yet she still takes that abuse without putting up much more of a fight. Maybe she is genuinely sorry or doesn't want to fight for real. Patchouli soon grows tired of beating her with a single book, then points at a nearby bookcase. Marisa looks up and shuts up for a second as she looks up at the bookcase and then realizes what's about to happen. She attempts to turn tail and run, but Patchouli commands the entire shelf's book collection to fly right off and swarm Marisa, piling on top of her faster than she can run off, pounds and pounds of force striking her all at once from the back. Immediately, she can be heard whining from inside the newly made pile for someone to help her. She doesn't need any, however, and gets out soon enough. After escaping, she begins to run off and snaps her fingers to call her broomstick. Patchouli has none of that silliness and grabs the broom before it can reach Marisa. She would have broken it right there if Marisa did not then take out her Mini Hakkero and finally threatens to fight back with an angry open frown. Since Patchouli is in no shape to fight, she then chucks the broom at Marisa like a spear. This does nothing, Marisa grabs it and puts her weapon away, then mounting her broom and taking back off.

Patchouli turns halfway and mutters to Marisa despite her not hearing, "Curse you to death, you yob." Meanwhile, Marisa simply flies off and exists the mansion with haste.

From the corner, Sakuya emerges and asks Patchouli, "That was a little harsh, don't you think?"

"She had it coming..." Patchouli nearly growls at her, pushing her out of the way and persisting on her walk. Sakuya follows her, pressing her on the issue more thoroughly, which lasts for at least another hour.

Meanwhile, it begins to rain heavily outside with thunder crackling in the clouds far above, resounding through the entirety of Gensokyo while Marisa flies on back to her house, blissfully ignorant of the danger of flying in a storm. While she flies through the rain, she thinks to herself worriedly, " _What did I do to make her so mad? I never insulted her...or tried to hurt her. Was she mad about the books? I don't borrow very much, there's too much there to get mad at._ " She starts to get a bit angry now and clenches her teeth to show herself such, " _She hit me! She really hit me, didn't she? That fucking hurt; how dare she! When I tell Reimu about this, I swear, she-_ " But her thoughts are suddenly interrupted by a loud snap in the clouds and a huge lightning bolt streaking down and just barely missing her, but also shooting her into a more aware state. She begins to lower her altitude in hopes to not get struck, but her mind still wanders, " _Did I leave anything behind? That sack...nothing else? Why do I feel like I'm missing something?_ " She sighs and simply endures the feeling while she makes it back to her home. Upon landing, however, she suddenly realizes when touching her head, " _My...hat!_ " She feels utterly stupid for forgetting such an important piece! At the door, she debates on whether or not to go back and get it or to stay back and wait...but emotion gets the better of rationality and she rears herself back up again, taking off into the sky once more to retrieve her lost hat.

Several minutes into her flight, the sky crackles once more, still disgorging utter torrents of rain. It begs the question of why she would even consider going back in this weather, until one realizes that logic is a weakness in Gensokyo - or so they say. The crackle is followed by several more and a bright flash that blinds her, just before a huge bolt flings out of the sky and strikes her! She's, for lack of a proper word, shocked and nearly knocked out, but still hanging on enough to try and land before getting struck again. The strike from the bolt is strong enough to send her hair into a majorly static position in midair as well as make her jump up a considerable amount. Another problem she doesn't realize is that the heat sat her broom and clothes and hair all on fire as well. Her state prevents her from feeling it, though it tears strait into her flesh and burns it completely, leaving chars behind. Despite her usually unsurvivable state, she manages to get a few dozen meters down in a nosedive before finally succumbing to injury and fainting. With that, she falls down nearly at terminal velocity to the cold and wet ground along with her broom that sticks into the ground and burns like a torch for just a second before being put out by the rain. Marisa lies next to it, unconscious, slipping finally into sweet death. As she slips, her unconscious mind thinks, " _They won't be mad any more._ "


	2. Chapter 2

Suddenly, Marisa simply sits up in her bed, alive and well but in a cold sweat. She's panting from the shock of being apparently killed, but not knowning if it was a dream or not. She glances around in several directions within the span of a few seconds, rapidly turning her head and shoulders in those directions to scan the environement; her house. Nothing but darkness and clutter piled up everywhere. The only visible windows shine with a bright light and are covered in haze and condensation. upon feeling herself up quickly, she sighs and smiles happily at the realization of having not actually died. She stands up, still in her nightgown, at the side of the bed and takes another look around. She's totally awake, but still a bit dazed and shocked from those events. Carefully, she walks through the house so as not to step on any unpleasant things such as Legos. She takes another quiet half hour getting dressed and preparing her usual equipment as par the usual, then steps outside of her house to immediately be hit with a wall of damp and cool air. She shivers and droops lazily at the same time, but gets back up and groans, "At least it isn't scorching hot." The surroundings are coated in rainwater and dew, supposedly from the night before. The sky is still cloudy, though, as if it is not yet done raining for the week. Marisa considers what she can do today, wanting but also anxious to go rob the SDM. It doesn't take but a moment of thought before she decides to go despite what had happened before, perhaps in hopes that it won't happen again. This time, she fills her sack with a few dozen books she's stolen before to maybe trade back in exchange for not being actually beaten and scalded. With that, she goes off.

On the way there, Marisa notices that the sky is only a bit bleak and signals a storm coming within the next hour or two with a wall of black and grey clouds coming from the distance to the side of where she looks at them from. It seems ever so slightly familiar to her, but she keeps going. On the way, there are next to no interruptions except the occasionally aggressive Kadema hordes. She reaches the mansion and sneaks past Meiling who is busy with some other intruder. Inside, the fairy maids are practically going crazy! It's like the Scarlet Mist incident again, but without the actual incident. She goes through them as usual, still without much trouble. She travels further and further into the mansion that seems to have sprung to life either from the tense atmosphere or the incoming storm or maybe something else, until she reaches the library. The dark and usually well guarded library seems rather tranquil as opposed to usual with little to no things attacking her. By now, she is thoroughly unsettled by the similarities between the dream and real life, just enough to be even more defensive than usual.

Inside the library, she dares not sneak around this time and actively seeks out and lands next to Patchouli, giving her a wave. As in the dream, Patchouli looks terrible and grumpy. She doesn't wave back, just stares at Marisa and grits her teeth. "Get out." she yells at Marisa like before.

Marisa holds her hands out, open, in a halting gesture, and says in a semi-quiet voice, "Wait, wait, I just came to..." She trails off a bit and throws her sack over her shoulder, opening it and pulling out one of the books she had stolen. She wiggles it in front of Patchouli in a bribe-like format. Patchouli doesn't look amused, but surprised instead. She takes the book, stares at it, then back at Marisa, then repeats several times.

However, she then scolds Marisa despite the supposedly kind act with her own correct observation, "You're not doing this out of the kindness of your heart, are you? After all, I doubt you have any."

Marisa immediately waves her hands in front of herself and denies it, "No, no, I really just want to return the-"

Patchouli cuts her off just before she can finish, "Don't lie to me." she snaps insistantly.

Marisa gets a bit frustrated and simply lifts the sack up and dumps the books out on the ground, "Here, look! I'm giving them back!" Patchouli stares at her with fierce eyes for a minute, long enough for Marisa to turn and begin to leave. However, just as she turns, Patchouli chucks one of the heavy books and hits her square in the forehead! Marisa jerks forward, spins around, and yells, "Hey, what was that for?"

As soon as she turns, Patchouli scowls again, "Don't you turn around and ignore me, you bitch!"

Marisa recoils a bit, but takes a deep breath and tries to calm her down, "H-Hey, now...don't get so angry!" Patchouli then begins to march up to her, hand held out and obviously about to try and strike her.

On the way to her, she yells at her some more, "Don't tell me to calm down! You're the one that needs to fucking calm down, you compulsive thief!" Just as she is about to hit her, though, Sakuya teleports out of nowhere right between them and grabs her hand.

"Lady Patchouli, please mind your temperment." she reminds her rather calmly, but holding firmly onto her wrist and hand. Patchouli relaxes and scoffs at the sight of Marisa, but turns around and begins to walk off to somewhere. Sakuya is left standing there, glaring at Marisa in an expression that screams, "You shouldn't have come here." She comments inexplicably, "There's something odd about you...but I can't quite see it." With a small bout of pondering, she disappears and leaves Marisa to find her own way out. Despite this, she manages to find the front door while flying around randomly and going down numerous hallways that serve little to no purpose. She even finds herself flying by Sakuya a few times, who waves at her.

When she exits through the front door, however, she is met by a storm that is lightly raging on and dousing the land. She stands there, frozen, in the doorway, trying to decide whether or not to risk it. In the end, she's far too scared of actually being struck by the lightning to dare do it. She pulls back inside and sits down next to the now closed doorway in fetal position with her right cheeck rested on her knees; her legs are pulled up by her arms and clutched tightly. She waits for a bit, but eventually dozes off from boredom.

A few hours pass while she naps with little to no trouble until Sakuya walks by and notices her. She walks towards her and yells, "Wake up!"

Marisa jerks up but groans at the pain of having her head in a painful position for so long. She stands up slowly and complains with a small, whiny slur, "Whyyy would you dooo thaaat?" Sakuya does not respond, but points to the door with a frown. Marisa flinches and complains again, "But it's storming out there!"

Sakuya raises an eyebrow and corrects her, "No...it's not." Marisa cannot believe her, so she glances outside and is dumbfounded to see that it ended so quickly. Just as she peeks out, though, Sakuya kicks her literally in the butt and sends her flying out the door before shutting it. Marisa is annoyed by this, but takes her broom up and flies off into the even-damper-than-before sky. The way back is utterly miserable in condition, so she almost falls to her knees, lazily, when she lands at her house. She finds the lack of energy to be odd and wonders to herself as to why, but finds no point to it in her addled state and just decides to flop onto her bed and continue to sleep in for another 2 or 3 hours.

By the end of that time, she's suddenly woken up by a loud commotion from outside; a few familiar looking fairies banging on her windows and doors and yelling some random crap that makes no sense. Perfect for other fairies, but not for anyone else who is half sane. Marisa stumbles out of her bed and realizes that she had went to bed fully dressed, and subsequently has a major backache. Her clothes are also all wrinkled and creased and ruined aesthetically. Not to say that they weren't dirtied before. She takes a couple steps forward and nearly trips over all of the crap that she has accumulated so far. Another couple steps and she almost trips again. This continues until she reaches the shop section of her house where the three fairies are waiting for her: Sunny, Luna, and Star. They immediately demand that the sleepy Marisa sell them honey. She decides to not try to guess what they need honey for and goes to search for any that may be around. She goes to open one cabinet in her "kitchen" area that looks more like a storeroom, but a stack of wooden bowls suddenly fall from the overhead cabinet and pummel her in the face, which makes her recoil in pain and yell, "HUUUUUAAAAAAH!" in a rather deep voice. After holding her head for a few minutes and crying like a baby, she finally gets to searching but cannot find any sort of honey. Despite living in a forest that is likely full of them, she never thought to get any. Probably because they may be dangerous to mess with; just a guess on her part. She goes back to the fairies and tells them the bad news, so they just float away with a very disappointed stature. She thinks to offer to go get some fresh honey, but quickly realizes how bad of an idea that would be. With that small bit, she walks back through her mess of a house and towards the bed to sit on it and just think for a few minutes. A few minutes turns into a few dozen, and a few dozen turns into a few hours. She nearly falls asleep with an absent mind, again, but is woken once more by a sudden, loud banging at her door. She quickly makes her way to it while yelling, "Oi, oi, oi, I'm coming, wait a second!" while nearly tripping over all of her crap again. A few bruised ankles later and she is just outside the front door, noticing Alice standing there with a hammer and a handful of papers. "Eh? Alice? What are you doing here?" she asks with a rather casual tone.

Alice points to the paper she just nailed next to Marisa's front door. It reads "Lost shanghai doll" at the top, followed by a crude drawing of a shanghai doll, then the bottom says, "Bring to Kourindou near the Forest of Magic! Cash reward on return!"

"Lost one of 'em?" Marisa asks rhetorically.

"Have you seen it?" Alice asks her in return.

"Nope."

"Well fuck you, too!" Alice immediately retorts, not even waiting for a full stop. She then whacks Marisa right over the head with the hammer. Marisa almost immediately, supposedly goes unconscious and falls to the side. A few seconds pass before Alice realizes what she just did and drops down to the ground, then begins to shake her. "Oh-oh no. No, no, no, no, no! Marisa! Wake up!" she sounds and acts panicked and continues to shake her more violently. "Please no. No, no, no. Marisa, answer me!" She suddenly yells, "ANSWER ME!" and pounds Marisa's back. She starts to breathe heavily and even pant. "D-did I...kill her?" she asks herself. "No, that can't be...this can't be happening!" she picks up and hugs the unconscious witch and starts to act more panicked, being shaky and gasping repeatedly, tearing up and sweating at the same time. Her entire face becomes red and wet with utter horror at what just suddenly happened. "I...I didn't mean it..." she tries to apologize, but is barely even able to convince herself. At that moment, she hears a small groan from Marisa, which makes her head shoot up and lifts her spirit a bit. "Oh, she isn't..." she says to herself, still a bit shaky from the thought. She decides it would be best to bring her inside to rest, so she does and places her on the only bed. She doesn't really know what to do, so only occupies the room by sitting on the edge of that bed. She stays completely silent with her eyes wide open, staring into nothingness, utterly traumatized by herself.

Another dozen or so minutes of waiting later, and Marisa wakes up again. She spots Alice sitting next to her and freaks out, flailing to and fro with wild abandon to try and beat her. This obviously fails to be at all efficient. Alice turns to her and looks extremely relieved, then lunges forward and hugs Marisa. They both stop for a minute and relax, but break off shortly before. "I thought you were dead..." Alice admits to her.

Marisa seems spaced out but responds, "No...but why did you hit me?"

"I don't know. I was mad." she answers.

"Which is it?"

No answer. Instead, Alice just asks her, "Are you alright?"

"I don't know. It still hurts...like a headache. I still feel a bit sleepy."

Alice looks a bit worried, "Just stay down. I'll...I'll get you something." She gets up and leaves without another word, but doesn't really know what to do next. She sort of just hangs out just beyond the front door. Marisa, meanwhile, is still a little messed up and tries to get up and do something despite Alice's well-spoken advice. She begins to stumble through the house, looking around for something cold to use on her aching head, but finds next to nothing. She starts to rummage through the piles of random, unsorted crap to no avail; there is literally nothing but that. She gives up easily and decides to try and leave, but Alice catches her and stops her, "Hey, what do you think you're doing?" Marisa mumbles something and shoves her out of the way, then begins to walk away towards some direction;

Alice chases after her. They go on for about 15 minutes through the forest and finally reach the outskirts. She immediately just topples over and slams face-first into the ground. Alice runs back over to her and crouches down to pick her up and start yelling again. To Marisa, the yelling is quiet and unintelligible. Her entire vision starts to fade into darkness as she slips away again. As Alice sees, her eyes go blank within moments and hang ajar with little spark or life left in them.

Just moments later, Marisa wakes up in her bed to the sound of those fairies demanding her attention. She finds that she's still in her clothes, which are wrinkled from having been slept in. She instantly shoots up to the memory of that event and recounts it. She starts to panic but is relieved that it was merely fictitious. "Another dream?" she asks herself, now becoming quite skeptical of the nature of these "dreams". Regardless, she recomposes herself and makes her way to the counter of her shop to meet the same fairies. As expected, they ask for honey again. Marisa has the greatest feeling that the "dream" was right and she doesn't have any, so she tells them "no" and refuses to deal with the issue any further. The answer was in a more anxious tone and might have even sounded a bit angry. The fairies left more upset than before. By now, Marisa is getting paranoid and refuses to fully fall asleep again and let another one of those awful nightmares happen. Hence, she simply sits down at a small, wooden desk with a similar chair that look vaguely western but are too simple to be sure of such a thing. She just sits there, leaning on one hand and looking bored but worried. After a bit, she decides to pick up one of the books that she stole and begin to read it. To be specific, a non-fiction on birds. Why that? It was the closest thing within reach. She hastily begins to read to bring her mind elsewhere and focus on something other than having experienced two oddly realistic nightmares within a single day.

Finally, as expected, a loud banging begins to sound near her door. Marisa freezes cold and slowly turns her head towards the door, then thinks, _"No. This can't happen. That was just a dream, it can't actually happen. She wouldn't do something like that, would she?"_ The banging continues for a few more pounds, and then stops. However, she then hears an actual knock on the door. She starts to pant lightly and slowly gets up, making her way to the door to open it. Alice is standing right there with her hands behind her back and a worried look.

"Hey, have you seen a shanghai anywhere?" she asks innocently. Marisa shakes her head, just creeping her head out of the door and not opening it entirely. "Oh." Alice sighs, loosening her posture and revealing the hammer, nails, and flyers in her hands. Upon seeing the hammer, Marisa's eyes widen visibly and she appears to freak out a little. Alice is about to come closer and ask her what's wrong, but Marisa slams the door instinctively, just short of hitting her. Alice is a bit stunned, but begins to pound on the door while yelling, "Hey, what the hell!? Let me in!" Of course, Marisa doesn't. She stands at the door and actively keeps it closed with her back against it. She stays completely silent and stands there for about 10 or so seconds of banging. After that, Alice just gives up and yells at her again, "I'm not going with you on the next incident!" as if that would be a good bluff (or perhaps barter). She stands there to wait for a response, but walks off when none comes. Marisa stoops to the ground and is glad to have supposedly gotten away with her life. She returns to her desk and tries to take her mind off of that with the book again. Nothing like learning to take your mind off of almost being murdered(?) by a good friend(?)! It takes a while, but she eventually comes to her senses and decides to stop. Without putting the book away, she gets up, puts her hat back on, and then heads out to someplace less deadly.

Marisa decided to head to the shrine to mess with Reimu and perhaps mooch off of her. Of course, the poor girl is unaware of this and lets her come in. Unfortunately, there isn't really anything to do so they just settle for lazily lying under the kotatsu for the time being. That is, they put their heads under the table instead of their feet. This does not worry anybody in the slightest. Out of boredom, Marisa decides to ask, "Hey, you know what's up with Patchy?"

"Who?"

"Patchy. You know, the shut-in?"

"Oh, that purple magician?"

"Yeah."

"No. Haven't been to the SDM in a while, but Remilia usually comes here out of boredom. You could ask her."

"I don't think so; they don't like me."

"No?"

"They don't."

"I can see why, however."

"Thanks." Marisa finishes off with sarcasm and they return to silence.

The better part of a half-hour later, Reimu speaks up again, "Something's different about you today."

"You think?" Marisa asks rhetorically. This sounds a bit rude with the tone she chooses.

Reimu gets a bit agitated by that and retorts, "I don't have to help you." Marisa turns to her side and falls quiet, realizing how she said that. She looks a little somber, so Reimu takes pity on her and sighs, "What's wrong?" She turns to face Marisa as well.

"I feel like everyone is out for me." she answers.

"What?" Reimu is obviously confused by that vague description of the problem.

"I dreamt about dying twice today." It's hard for her to admit, so she is a bit quiet. Reimu really isn't sure about how to respond, so she just waits. "Patchy got mad at me for some reason and started..." she glazes over that part "...she just got mad, and I got thrown out. I had to fly through the storm earlier to get home, but got hit by lightning and..." She stops at the end and just continues after that, "Well, I woke up and went by again. Everything was...the same. I hung around after she threw me out and fell asleep, but Sakuya kicked me out later."

There is a long pause. Reimu really can't say anything at this point. She realizes that it's serious, but doesn't know anything to say or do that could help. So, she just waits to see if Marisa will continue to ramble. At this point, it's actually a little bit awkward. Marisa herself doesn't know whether to continue at this point or not, fearing that it may be long-winded or would make things too personal. They just wait for each other pointlessly and make no progress.

That is, until a certain dead princess walks in and ruins the close moment by literally flipping the kotatsu. Reimu and Marisa beam up almost instantly to see Remilia standing over them with a triumphant and expectant look on her face.

"Ah, what were _you_ two doing under there!?" Remilia exclaims, putting as much emphasis on "you" as possible.

"What are you trying to imply?" Reimu asks her with a skeptical tone.

"Oh, you know what I'm implying!" Remilia yells back at her. This time, she's blushing and making a very raunchy face.

"We weren't making out." Reimu quickly and bluntly denies her, but she then asks, "Who do you think you are, anyways? That tengu?"

"Maybe I'm in cahoots with her!" Remilia bluffs.

"What the hell is a 'cahoots'?"

"Ah, I forgot that you lack language skills!" Remilia mocks her.

This hits a nerve and Reimu warns her, "Watch it." Remilia just laughs at this in the most spectacular fashion.

Just in the middle of it, however, she stops and asks, "Hey, what's up with her?" referring to Marisa who is still curled up into fetal position and presumably brooding.

"Had a bad day."

"Sakuya said that there was something up about her." Remilia wonders. "Didn't you?" she then turns to the maid, who is standing right behind her, and asks.

"Yes. Something disturbing." Sakuya reassures her suspicions.

Remilia thinks on it for a moment, but then dismisses it. Meanwhile, Reimu looks over at the kotatsu that was flipped over and orders Remilia to put it back. She does and proceeds to sit under it as well. She also has the position backwards, which doesn't even bother Sakuya in the slightest. Reimu finds this vaguely annoying and makes a sour face.

They stay like that for a while, but Remilia finally asks them, "What's so exciting about this again?"

"Nothing." everybody simultaneously answers.

Despite this, she stays. In fact, Sakuya joins them as well in curiosity. In a matter of minutes, Suika now enters the room and thinks that it looks cozy, so SHE joins it too. They all also manage to somehow fall asleep except for Reimu and Marisa. To this, Reimu comments, "Our peace and quiet was ruined by blatant moochers." Marisa groans in agreement.

Just as in couldn't get any more uncomfortable, Aya appears, looking for her next story. She doesn't find it, but finds a nice side-story. She snaps a photo of everybody congregated under the kotatsu and yells, "Thanks!" before speeding out. Both of them groan at what could possibly be another "scandal" and get out from under the thing. Reimu gets tired of these people and flips the kotatsu, making it land on Sakuya's and Suika's legs. They immediately wake up and scream in pain, waking up Remilia as well. However, Remilia does not care, she just gets up and yawns. The other two throw the table again and make it slam into the corresponding wall.

Reimu proceeds to yell at them, "Get out of my home!" She then points at the exit and sternly glares at them. They all grumble and get up, then leave without much more complaining; they can't really do anything about it. Once gone, Reimu turns back to her friend and pats her on the shoulder. "You're alright." she insists. Marisa nods and reassures herself, though with a bit of displeasure. Reimu drags her outside a moment later and insists, "Why don't we go and cheer you up?" Marisa doesn't say anything. "Come on, let's go down to the village, I'll get you something nice." she _further_ insists. Finally, Marisa gives a small smile and agrees, "Alright, I'll go." And so, they head down the steps and to the village, noticing that it has become midday by now.

 


	3. Chapter 3

Within an hour, Reimu and Marisa make their way down to the village and proceed through the crowds, walking around somewhat aimlessly while talking about where to go; essentially sightseeing. The clamor of the crowds is nearly unreasonable, making it hard to hear, however. After not being able to understand each other on several occasions, they finally just decide to head into the nearest building. To their surprise, they end up in a florist's shop. Not only that, but it is headed by Yuuka, who can be seen just barely, tending to something in a back room which is also behind the front counter.

Absolutely everything in the shop is made of wood or is flower. Even the roof is completely wooden. The flowers practically coat the walls, ceiling, and floor in their sheer numbers with very little space to move without grazing one. There also "windows" lining the walls copiously, which are just square holes in the walls with restricting beams barely covering them. The variety of the flowers is also quite immense, with it seeming like there isn't a single copy of one pot to be seen. The only copied plant seems to be a type of perennial sunflower that is both on a shelf to the right and on the front counter, which is somewhat sparse of decor.

While the two stand, gawking at the surroundings, Yuuka has come up to the counter. She decides to call out to them, "Hey, I haven't seen either of you in a while."

They both snap back into reality; Reimu responds, "Oh, Yeah. We were just getting away from the crowds."

Yuuka smiles, "They're pretty loud. I have to say, maybe a bit too loud." She has an agitated smile during the last 5 words.

"So, I never realized that you were actually going to follow through with this idea." Reimu comments on the existence of the flower shop.

"Well, I did it." she simply affirms. "What are you here for, really?"

"Marisa's not feeling too well." Reimu very vaguely explains.

"Is that so?" an unfamiliar voice yells from the back, which has become oddly dark.

"Who…?" Reimu and Marisa begin to say at the same time before Yuuka interrupts.

"Oh, I hired that darkness youkai-" the person in the back interrupts _her_.

"Rumia!" she reminds them all.

"Yes, I hired Rumia to deal with the night-flowering plants. She likes to say that a lot." Yuuka finishes her explanation, uninterrupted.

"Right." Reimu pauses after saying that, then notices Marisa poking around away from them. "Hey, don't go swiping anything." she says out of reflex.

"Can you even steal a flower without breaking it?" Marisa retorts.

"If you try to find out, I'll run you over with a horse-drawn plow!" Yuuka yells out to her in the fakest of happy expressions.

"What are we even doing here?" Reimu asks herself aloud. She goes to take a seat in a chair just in front of the counter that is slanted towards it, then tries to lean back and relax.

Yuuka reaches over and slaps her in the back of the head, then scolds her, "You're squishing some. Quit."

Reimu jumps up and yells, "You've got too much fragile crap all over the place!"

"Heeey, you're gonna make her mad!" Marisa teases.

"You are too!" she yells back.

"You two, just buy something and leave already, if you're going to." Yuuka orders them, then comments, "This is really annoying, you know."

The two groan but comply. They begin to look around again and tend to get mesmerized by the sights, but Reimu quickly finds something interesting. "Hey, Marisa, go outside for a minute." She does, at which point Reimu picks a pot of orange-red lilies up and brings it over without saying anything.

"Tiger lilies?" Yuuka asks rhetorically. She has a look that says, "That's cute." Reimu says nothing, so Yuuka presents the price, which is paid, and Reimu is sent off. Yuuka doesn't wave her off after being annoyed.

She comes out and immediately finds Marisa tinkering with her Hakkero beside the entrance. She hands the pot of about 3 lilies over and arbitrarily adds, "This isn't weird."

Marisa puts her thing away, takes the pot, then stares at it for a good, long time before insisting, "Yes it is." with a mischievous smile.

It's not hard to see her intent, so Reimu ignores the attempt and simply pats her shoulder. "So what do you want to do?"

Marisa is caught off guard and can't give a straight answer, so she gives a half-assed one, "Um...danmaku?"

"No. Absolutely not. Not after the last few months. Completely out of the question." Reimu immediately denies her.

The two sit on it for a few more minutes, then Marisa gets another idea, "Oh, look for Shanghai!"

"What." Reimu misunderstands it to be the place.

"Alice's missing doll."

"Oh. Sure." reimu agrees with no protest whatsoever.

Thus, the two set out on a side-quest to find the doll, simply to ease boredom. It's fairly quickly resolved, however. They only need to wander around idly for about 15 minutes before they find it. Unfortunately, it is in the possession of somebody: a young girl. She is practically alone in the middle of a crowd and holds the Shanghai with both arms crossed, around it.

" **STOP RIGHT THERE, CRIMINAL SCUM!** " Marisa screams at the girl as loud as possible.

" _ **Idiot!**_ " Reimu yells at her sudden outburst.

As the two seemingly sprint towards the girl, she stands there looking utterly terrified for what's about to happen. Luckily, Marisa doesn't carelessly tackle her and instead just stops to crouch down. That doesn't stop a crowd of people to fall silent and stare at the witch while she harasses the kid. "Hey, where'd you get that doll!?" she loudly asks, peeking out from behind the flowers and using her broom as leverage.

"I...found it." she very slowly says. Just slowly enough for Reimu to slide right next to Marisa and scold her.

"What is wrong with you?"

"Where?" Marisa ignores her friend and instead continues to question the girl.

"Um..." she begins to answer, but is too scared to.

Suddenly, Reimu backstabs Marisa with a persuasion needle and demands, "Quit. You're scaring the spirits out of her." for a frightening total of _1 damage._

Marisa immediately apologizes and stops talking. Reimu takes up her place and tries to talk to the girl instead, "Hey, that doll you have belongs to somebody."

The girl looks down on it, then looks back up and groans, not seeming to want to hand it over. The two think about the situation for a bit, then Marisa comes up with an idea. "I got it! We can just take the girl to Alice!"

Reimu contemplates just stabbing the girl with a persuasion needle to solve the problem, but promptly remembers that there is a crowd around them that is only now dispersing. She settles on the other idea and asks the girl to let her carry her. She is easily persuaded and climbs into Reimu's grip.

"Good, now meet me just outside of her house." Marisa says before hopping onto her broom and flying off by herself.

"This is practically kidnapping. Why do I let her talk me into these things?" Reimu asks herself before taking off as well.

15 minutes pass before she reaches Alice's house and sees Marisa standing out in the open, waiting. She lands right in front of her, they nod, then walk up to the door and knock. No straight answer, but they get the dooming feeling of being watched. A half minute passes, then the latches on the door finally move with loud, clanking noises. Out Alice walks with a very skeptical glare at all three of them. That is, until she sees the doll. She swipes it from the girl by force and heads back inside, then slams the door shut and locks it.

The kid starts to tear up and whine, which makes Reimu sigh and groan and moan in an utterly defeated and exasperated tone. "Come on, you can't just do that!" she yells at the door, trying to get Alice to come back out. No response and the kid is still sobbing.

Eventually, Marisa joins in as well and starts to bang on the door, yelling and being generally annoying, "Alliiiiiice! Look at what you diiiiiid! You gotta come back oooouuuut!"

This continues for just a little bit too long, in which time Reimu has to deal with two screaming and whining children at once and not go completely insane. At just the right time, however, Alice finally becomes annoyed and busts the door open so hard that it sends Marisa's face right into a wall. She comes out screaming, " _ **HOLY FUCKING SHIT, WHAT THE FUCK IS YOUR PROBLEM YOU DAMN ASSHOLES!?**_ "

" _MY FAAAAAAAAACE(ze)!_ " Marisa also screams from the measurable pain.

"We already know your face is a problem!" Alice yells back.

Reimu interjects, "Hey, you made the little girl cry. We already had to steal her, so apologize."

Alice calms down a little when she sees the tiny human, so she sighs and pets her. She doesn't say a word, but has an idea. She goes back in and rummages around her house for a bit while Marisa recovers from getting her face slammed into a wall. She comes back out and slams the door open again. Marisa narrowly dodges getting nailed by the door and lies on the ground in a panic. Alice has brought what looks like a newly made bare doll out and hands it to the girl. She stops crying and takes it, then holds it tight and grips Reimu tightly, who says nothing and looks as apathetic as always. Alice nods, then heads back inside, still not saying anything aside from a quiet, "Thanks."

Marisa stands back up with a large bruise on her cheek and nose. It doesn't look broken, but still looks painful.

"It hurrrrrrts..." she complains while holding the area.

"Let's go, we can't just leave the kid here."

"But I don't want tooooo..."

"Then go home and I'll do it."

The two agree and part ways for now. Marisa walks back home by herself, picking up a few mushrooms on the way. She comments, "I kind of wish she'd have gotten me some of these." On the way, she eats one and starts to feel a bit odd. She eats another and begins to feel exponentially better. Thinking they are painkillers, she sidetracks into picking more and more, as they grow copiously in whatever area she's in. Eventually, she's eaten at least 6 and can feel no pain. In fact, she can barely feel herself standing. Unbeknownst to her, she is now literally "high on shrooms". In her addled state, she manages to wander off into the Bamboo Forest of the Lost and get...lost. Despite them being of no help to her right now, she continues to eat the mushrooms even after wandering in. A few hours pass before she's finally back to a normal-ish state. Once she finally snaps out of her daze, she vomits and says, "That was awesome."

Then she realizes where she is and how fucked she currently is. "I can't even see past the roof of the bamboo..." She then wonders what time it is and begins to walk around, now feeling rather tired and full. She goes on for what seems like forever without making any real progress, but then she comes upon a small bamboo hut. Before she can approach, someone comes out: Mokou. Marisa sucks at hiding, so she is almost instantly spotted.

"Hey, you lost?" Mokou calls out to her. Just then, however, she recognizes Marisa and says so, "Wait, I know you from somewhere...weren't you that witch Kaguya sent out to kill me?"

Of course, Marisa can't remember such things. "Umm...no?" she responds.

Mokou shrugs it off, introduces herself, and invites her over, so she follows inside. It's about as basic as you get: two beds, some shelves with supposedly random assortments of decor ranging from books to musical instruments, a low table with a few Zabuton laid out around it, and the rest is presumably outside or non-present. Mokou welcomes her in, but she's already welcomed herself in. Within seconds, she's already face-first into one of the beds and writhing around in it. Mokou is a bit annoyed but only says, "Or just do that."

"Moko-tan, your bed is unreasonably soft!" Marisa coos out to her.

"Don't call me that." she responds in an annoyed manner while standing against a wall.

Marisa sits up and asks while staring at her, "Why not?"

"We barely know each other!" Mokou uptalks.

"Oh, I think we _have_ met before!"

"You finally remember?"

"Yeah, I kicked your ass!"

Mokou then lights her sleeve on fire. Marisa freaks out and begins to roll around on the floor until the flame suffocates, leaving her right arm slightly singed. When she gets up, Mokou is standing above her and looking down upon her.

"Whaaat?" Marisa slurs.

Mokou sighs and asks, "Do you know how late it is?"

"Um..." Marisa struggles to think of how long she was tripping.

"It's about this time that the Youkai become...aggressive. There's some sort of wolf running around too."

"So..." Marisa begins to ask what her point is.

"If you go out, the monsters will beat you."

Marisa doubts this with good reason, "Naaah, I'll beat them." She waves her hand around and giggles.

"Yeah, yeah, that's what they all say. Besides, I'm tired."

"From what?"

Mokou sits at her small table and gives a short explanation, "Had to escort three people, got attacked at least ten times, had to kill Kaguya for a couple hours; the usual."

"Wait, what?"

"Just wait here for a bit." Mokou sets her head on the table and groans from an headache.

"But I'm not tired!" Marisa lies to herself.

Mokou groans and complains quietly, "Come on..."

So does Marisa, but she takes her broom up and leaps out an open window to take a look outside. Still, the sky seems to be almost completely blocked out by the bamboo. It only reveals the faintest light of a sunset with the rest being dark. She becomes frustrated and tries to rocket upwards to get a better view. For some reason, the shutes just seem to get longer and longer the farther up she goes, continuing on for a few minutes despite her best efforts to speed up. Eventually, she gives up, seeing as there is no end to their lengths. She goes straight down and is perplexed that it takes her at most half the time it took her to fly up. This makes her even angrier, so she barges back into the hut and yells, " _The hell is up with this forest!?_ "

"Magic." Mokou blatantly and broadly explains.

"Great." Marisa throws her arms up and casts her broom aside.

"Did you try to fly up?" Mokou asks.

"Yes." This time, Marisa doesn't lie.

"You can't just do that. This is the Bamboo Forest of the _Lost._ Not the Bamboo Forest of the _Cheese._ " Mokou makes a somewhat meta joke.

"Cheese?" Marisa is totally confused by it.

"It's..." Mokou begins to explain the joke as well, but quickly loses interest, "Never mind. Just let me rest."

Marisa puffs her cheeks out and pouts but leaves her alone and just waits outside for a while.

Soon after that, Keine curiously shows up and both are confused to see each other. They stare at each other for a prolonged period but eventually, Marisa speaks up, "Aren't you...?" trying to recall who she is.

"I've seen you before...a few times." Keine vaguely remembers.

They ponder for a moment, but Marisa is the first to guess her name, "Keine...Kam...Kami..."

"Yes?" She encourages her to continue.

"Kamashirosuwa?" Marisa guesses her last name.

" _A tea-sipping frog!?_ " Keine yells at her with rhetoric. She then corrects her, "Kamishirasawa."

"Kama...shiri-sawa?"

"Kamishirasawa."

"Kam-kam... _Koakuma!_ "

Keine slaps her for being an idiot and yells, " _That someone else!_ "

Marisa laughs it off, trying to make it out as a joke, which only marginally succeeds.

"Jeez, why are you here anyways? I thought witches didn't get lost in forests."

"Ah, I did. Mokou showed me here."

"Makes sense. I suppose she's asleep?"

"Yeah." Marisa sighs as she says.

Keine smiles, "Sounds like her." and they both stand there for a short, awkward moment before heading quietly inside. Mokou is curled up on the floor, lying atop two Zabuton and asleep. Keine comments, "She dozed off in her day clothes again."

She takes her hat off and set it on the hut's shelf, then proceeds to pick up Mokou and lay her in the left bed. She starts to gently but quickly strip everything off of her until she's in nothing but her underwear, then casts a quilt over her and stands back up. During that time, Marisa just watches from a distance, out of how strange she finds the sight. She even watches as Keine folds and puts away the outfit. She takes notice of Marisa and figures, "You need somewhere, don't you?"

Marisa assumes she means a bed, so she says, "Yeah." while thinking, _"What a nice person."_ Of course, she also wonders about the more lewd thoughts.

As she ponders, Keine prepares a small setup under the table for her to rest at. It's mostly just an amalgamation of cushioning and a quilt on the floor. "I hope that's fine." she says aloud, which breaks Marisa's pondering long enough for her to nod.

Keine sits down on her bed at the right side of the hut and takes out an odd, metallic canister, then drinks from it. Marisa is immediately attracted to it, so she asks, "Hey, what's that?"

"Oh, a gift." Keine briefly answers.

Marisa sits down in front of her and prods further, "From who?"

"A student." she gives another brief answer.

"Where's it from?" Marisa continues to question with her gaze set on the object.

"I don't think he told me. It must be from Kourindo, though." Keine observes the canister a bit, then comments on its properties, "It looks to be made of steel, but it's a bit stronger than what the humans make."

Marisa is greatly tempted to swipe it, but knows how bad of an idea that would be. To resist, she simply walks to the door and lingers there for a bit. The forest has become visibly darker since Marisa last took a good look as she is now, and she regrets not being physically able to stay up a bit later. When she finally decides to turn back around, Keine has already settled into bed in the bare minimum. Marisa doesn't have her (stolen) nightgown, so she fails to figure out what would be the acceptable thing to do in this situation. Then she remembers that she doesn't care and figuratively rips her clothes off.

She sets the outfit on the table and slides under it, then tries to get to sleep despite the discomfort that a floor with some vague cushioning gives. She ends up lingering awake for the next hour or two, just thinking randomly conjured thoughts. Mostly pondering once again over what has happened so far, over the course of what seems like just a single day. She scares herself accidentally with those thoughts and decides to just try to sleep for now. The night falls rather silently with only the wailing of a wolf to accompany it.

 


	4. Chapter 4

A faint smell of paper starts to flow around the room. A charcoal-like, bitter smell accompanied by the air becoming heavy and hot. It's humid and hard to breathe or sweat. Marisa finally finds this odd when a loud, violent pop occurs very close to her and a scorching flurry of flakes splash in her face. She gasps and pries her eyes open in seconds, seeing before her an inferno that surrounds the entire hut and lights it up in a blinding orange tint. She recoils at the sight and has to cover her eyes from the brightness at first, but can eventually look at it while squinting. She kicks her covers off and reaches for her outfit but can't seem to find it. Valuing her own life over the clothes, she throws the table above her aside and towards the fire, then leaps up and tries to look around for somewhere to get out. She leaps right into the smoke that fills the room, making her start to violently cough and drop down to her knees, still hacking and choking as an overreaction from the unfamiliar sensation.

She eventually decides to look up to see an increasingly voluminous cloud of smoke coat the ceiling. She looks around for the exit but can't find it; the walls have started to collapse slowly and fire is blazing in through the open windows. The bamboo begins to pop around her incessantly, making embers shower everywhere. Marisa begins to crawls towards where her broom was, hoping it hasn't burned up yet. She grabs the handle of it and then realizes that both ends are ablaze and the rest of it is scorching to the touch. She recoils and screams, grabbing her wrist and squeezing it while she sucks polluted air through her teeth and tears up. Failing to find a safe way out, she calls out, "Mokoooou!" A few seconds later, "Keeeiine!" Neither answer, and the ceiling pops and collapses where the table used to be. The covers, pillows, her clothes, and her broom burst into flames while she cries, "Heeelp meeee!" with the looming vowels becoming choked stutters.

When she finishes the cry, the rest of the ceiling caves in and falls into the entire hut. Marisa gets caught under it and barely crushed underneath the flaming bamboo. Nonetheless, they easily burn and melt away her exposed skin from the bottom up. As soon as she is over the sudden shock of being pelted from above by the flaming stalks, she starts to panic from the immeasurable pain that the heat and incinerating flesh brings. She starts to flail around aimlessly, throwing around the chunks of singed and burning bamboo in every direction. It's light, but still hot, so she only spares future burns by thrashing out of the rubble. She then tries to stand now that the smoke has cleared, but finds herself unable to on account of the massive pain from putting any pressure on them. She begins to cry and makes a loud-yet-low groaning yell.

She prepares to crawl away towards some random direction, but the walls collapse soon after and attempt to crush her again as if the hut had a grudge. The burning seems to hurt even more this time as the flames start going straight into her flesh, so she screams as loud as possible. A shriek that could rival banshees and quickly devolves into a guttural growl of her gargling blood. She spits out the blood and gasps for breath, then starts to shudder and twitch rapidly. The pain begins to dull, only in time for her hair to catch fire and quickly burn towards her scalp to cause even greater pain. She starts to scream yet again but this time also starts to try pulling out her hair chunk by chunk. The tearing sound of her hair strands being ripped straight from her follicles is just barely audible over the crackling flames while her grunts of agony continue to get more primal and coarse. She's far too slow; her scalp begins to burn. In mere moments, all of her hair has been torn out and burned, making her bald and still roasting alive. With little left to burn, the flames leave her head relatively alone aside from some severe burns which reveal the flesh beneath.

Marisa just about drops down in defeat, but still refuses to give up. She starts to crawl away from the rubble of the hut through the nearly crushing weight of the walls of dying fire and bamboo. She climbs up and out of it, then over the shattered leftovers of the walls. She drops down, out, and onto the ground, but then hears a peculiar tearing sound and an empty gut feeling. All of time slows down at that moment and she looks very, very slowly behind her with the palest possible face and completely empty eyes. She stares behind her with her mouth agape and tears streaming down her face, unhindered. Her entire upper body is blistered and red, her back black and yellow and torn all to shreds with gaping indentations. Her legs and most of the lower body have been torn open and hang vaguely from the sharp, hot edges of the destroyed wall. They are in the same condition of irreparable, destructive burning but worse. Her blood and guts are strewn all over the ash-covered ground of charred grass and dirt. All of them are nearly unidentifiable in form from their former selves and now just appear as a mass of nearly annihilated flesh. No doubt is left in her mind that she's about to die again. It was not a sudden one this time, and she wishes that it was.

Marisa simply lies her head in the ash while her vision fades rather quickly and her blood pours out and becomes rapidly invaded. She can't even have her final thoughts with the sheer amount of shock. Finally, everything ends while the forest is razed with fire and the falling ash gives off the last pleasant view of something that reminds her of snow.

And then she wakes up. Again. After all of that horrific experience, her eyes shoot open to be met by the darkness of night, staring up at the ceiling of the hut, now peaceful. She finds herself in a cold sweat, feeling like she's in an oven despite the temperature of the room. She throws the quilt aside and lies out with all of her limbs spread apart for a minute while she pants and gasps for breath as if they were her last. Her heart is racing dangerously at this point but she manages to calm down enough to not accidentally kill herself. She starts to take much longer breaths that eventually become normal breaths. She stops and gets up to take a look around. Everything seems normal, quiet, peaceful, and generally non-threatening. Keine and Mokou still lie asleep in their beds and there is no sign of fire. Marisa calms down and approaches a window to stare out of it. There's nothing, not even the moon, sky, or stars which are blocked out by the mana-saturated bamboo. She sighs and simply stands there, staring out into the dark with little to no purpose but the inability to rest well.

At least an hour more passes by before she decides to try sleeping again. She lies under the table without the cover and tries to sleep. She closes her eyes slowly and softly, then waits. Then she waits some more. Then a bit more. She continues to wait. More waiting. Nothing. She pouts and pitifully cries for just a moment. It's about that this moment that she wishes Reimu were here, but she isn't. Therefore, she sucks up her pitifulness and tries again, unsuccessfully.

"I-I can't, I just can't...!" she quietly yells at herself with both hands over her face and gritted teeth. She finally decides to get up again and bravely crawl into Keine's bed while she's curled up tightly on one side. She gets under the covers and scoots right up to Keine, then hugs her from behind and squeezes tightly more out of anxiety than affection. That anxiety makes her embarrassment minimal but still slightly present. After sufficiently burying herself next to Keine, she tries to get to sleep there.

It mostly works until Keine wakes up and notices someone clinging to her. She turns her head around to spy Marisa and so asks, "What are you...?"

Marisa immediately apologizes and separates herself from Keine with the excuse, "I...couldn't sleep well."

Keine stares at her for a bit with her unsettlingly glowy eyes, ignoring her nudity, and then smiles. "It's okay; you just need to ask." She grins and welcomes Marisa with open arms.

"Thank you..." Marisa whispers as she crawls into her arms.

Keine cradles her like the wonderfully caring person that she is for a bit, but then asks out of the blue, "Your reaction...you're not used to this, are you?"

Marisa shakes her head, "Not really..."

Nothing further is said. Keine just finds her to be rather cute. The two eventually fall asleep together and have a more peaceful rest until the next morning.

Marisa wakes up a few hours later, before the other two. She slowly and carefully crawls out of Keine's lap and onto the ground, then stands and looks around while rubbing her eyes and hanging her head a bit. She spends the next few minutes tiredly getting dressed again, giving enough time for Mokou to wake up and notice her.

"You're up early." she comments and yawns at the same time.

"And I thought Hourai didn't need to sleep." Marisa jokes shortly afterwards.

"Nope. It's not really important anymore, but it still sucks to be tired." Mokou explains.

"Um...yeah." Marisa is confused at how she could think that wasn't rhetorical. "So are we leaving yet?" She doesn't sound too excited, but more tired. She also puts her arms behind her head and relaxes it while standing.

"Give me a minute!" Mokou complains, then sighs and scoffs at the same time.

She takes a while to get ready, though. She gets up, stares at the ceiling for a few minutes, then gets dressed and continues to space out for a moment. She then leaps through the window and dashes off somewhere too quickly for Marisa to follow. After a while during which she loses track of time, Mokou finally returns from outside and says, "Alright, let's go."

Marisa takes up her broom and takes off out the hut to follow Mokou.

"So where to?" she asks just as they leave.

"Out." Marisa simply but strongly demands.

"Right." Mokou confirms with a thumbs up.

They go off, just walking at a leisurely pace for a while in the peaceful but somewhat dark and humid forest. That is, until Marisa finally asks, "Hey, you're immortal, right? Like, you can't die?"

"Yeah."

"Does it hurt for you?"

Mokou stops for a second, but continues to walk shortly after answering, "It does."

"Well..." Marisa starts to ask, but has an unreasonable amount of trouble actually asking the obvious question. "I..." she tries again. Mokou is getting a bit annoyed by her inability to speak. "What if I told you that I've died?" she finally does. Not the question she meant to ask, but similar.

Mokou chuckles, "Well, I'd call you a liar!"

That discourages Marisa, but she continues boldly, "But I have; I'm serious!"

"Right. So how did you 'die'?"

Marisa proceeds to describe the ones she has experienced so far, "First, I think I got hit by this lightning bolt and crashed into the ground really hard. Second, Alice hit me with something. I think it was a hammer. Third, I got trapped-" she stops, however. Just as she is about to describe the burning, she stops and causes Mokou to as well.

"Hm? Come on, I was just getting interested." she turns to complain.

"I was trapped in your hut, and it was on fire."

"Go on." Mokou insists, continuing to walk.

"Well, I woke up and it was on fire. Everything was hot and exploding and stuff. I got up and choked on the smoke, then my stuff started to burn and explode. The roof collapsed and crushed me. I got out, but then the wall fell and did it again..."

Mokou asks a sort of creepy question that could be construed as either curious or sadistic, "How did it feel?"

Marisa is hesitant to elaborate further, but does so anyways, "Everything was...hot. Like being too close to a campfire but worse, or maybe getting hit by a Master Spark. No, the fire is worse. It felt..." she makes an odd comparison "...like getting whipped a thousand times."

"You would know what that feels like?" Mokou asks, a bit concerned.

"N-No, no, I'm just guessing..." she hastily explains herself. Mokou isn't convinced, but usually isn't anyways.

Marisa continues, "I couldn't even stand, but then I couldn't feel anything...the pain just...stopped." She starts to slow down a bit and tear up again. She begins to stutter the start of the next sentence, "It...i-it..." over and over.

Mokou stops and backs up next to her. "Come on, speak." she encourages her with a pat on the shoulder.

"It...was real fire. Not Danmaku, actual, hot, deadly fire!" she quietly yells, trying to hold back from crying from the memory that very slowly begins to fade in clarity. "I can't even describe it..." she admits, now calming down.

Mokou can tell that she's withholding something, but doesn't prod further and just tells her to continue walking. Mokou keeps an arm around her with the other in her pocket while they continue.

She leads her to the very edge of the forest and beyond, taking her as far as to the village outskirts before stopping and pushing her forward, "Alright, that's far enough. You can get home from here, right?"

"Yeah, thanks." Marisa quickly thanks her and then runs off. Mokou smiles at another successful job, but is then immediately confronted by somebody else for an escort.

Marisa makes a beeline right for her house, not even stopping to look around. When she lands at her house's front door, she drops to her knees and hugs the door. She does this for a little bit too long before getting back up. She looks around in each direction afterwards and decides to just run off again, completely forgetting what she meant to do before getting lost. She heads off deep into the forest and mucks around with blowing things up. That's pretty much it.

Meanwhile, in the SDM, Sakuya is confronted suddenly while preparing a meal, by Patchouli.

"Sakuya, have you noticed something odd, lately?" she asks as if it were a passing question.

Sakuya continues to chop away at a stick of strange meat, "Now that you mention it, it's become quite a bit harder for me to maintain a time-freeze."

"Interesting. How so?" Patchouli prods.

Sakuya stops to answer, "It leaves me fatigued, not wanting to move too much afterwards. Like the act were eating away at my bones." and then continues.

Patchouli groans and stares at Sakuya, somewhat in thought. "What about changes in the behavior of your sword?" she adds.

"I haven't used it."

Patchouli groans again, asking yet another question, "And what about the mansion?"

Sakuya stops mid-chop, then looks back and around at the dimly-lit kitchen. She puts her cleaver down and strolls out into the hallway, then looks both ways and back to Patchouli. "Actually...yes, it looks smaller."

Patchouli closes her eyes and nods slowly. "Yes, I thought so." she says, then leaves. Sakuya is left guessing about what she meant.

Her next stop is at Remilia's bedroom deep in the mansion. Upon reaching the rather tall double doors leading into it, she knocks and is met with two knocks from the inside. She kicks the door. Remilia opens the door and peeks out with just her head and one arm, still apparently, relatively undressed. "Yes?" she asks with the slightest smile.

"Have you noticed anything odd lately? As in, the past day or two?"

"Liiiiike...?" Remilia slurs while waving her hand around.

"Environmental changes, powers are harder to use, hallucinations, skewed perception of time, etcetera; weird things." Patchouli explains.

"Now that you mention it, yeah." she puts a finger on her chin and contemplates. She then lets the door go and stands in a proud position with one hand on her hip and one on her head, then bluffs "Yes, I've noticed it! In fact, I've been using that to my advantage! Those humans will never see THIS incident coming!" She forgets that she's standing nude in a doorway.

Patchouli stares at her with the most unimpressed of faces, then sarcastically remarks, "Yeaaaaah." She points at Remilia, down a bit, and waits.

Remilia looks down at where she's pointing, then realizes that she's nude again. She grabs the door and slams it shut without another word, except for possibly yelling, "Perverted lesbian!" which accomplishes nothing.

Patchy sighs and yells back in monotone, "I've seen you like that too much to care, Remi." She then leaves without another word to question more people. she goes through most of the mansion asking the maids about their experiences in the past day. No progress in that. She eventually gets to Meiling who is tending to the gardens in the courtyard.

Meiling turns to her just upon appearance and casually asks, "What's up?" which gets her slapped. It doesn't seem to hurt her, though.

"Don't talk so casually to me." Patchouli aggressively commands, but then calms down and asks what she did to Remilia, but pertaining more to Qi.

Meiling perks up upon the question, "Oh, yeah! There's been something nasty going down; I can feel it. Oh, and that witch girl-"

"Marisa."

"Her. She hasn't been around today. It should be pretty peaceful, but even off the flowers, I can feel the distress. I feel like something's wrong with the flow of time, if you know what I mean."

Patchouli nods, "I already spoke to Sakuya, she said similar. Thank you, now get back to work."

Meiling salutes and continues to tend to the plants with a watering can while Patchouli waves goodbye and heads back inside to her library.

"Devil." she calls into the darkness upon entrance. A small devil in black flutters towards her and awaits her command, which is, "Prepare my seat, we have a long day ahead of us." The devil nods, then flutters off while Patchouli makes her way through her labyrinth of bookshelves while picking up several volumes on the way. She approaches a cushioned chair draped with various quilts and takes her seat, leaning in towards the desk that it sits by and opening one labeled "Boundaries of Time, Vol. 1". She lies another aside, which is unlabeled but pitch black on the cover. The devil in black from earlier comes to her side and offers her a cup of tea, which she sets aside before casting above her an orb of light to illuminate the desk, books, and cup. She drapes a quilt over herself and gets comfortable for a long day of reading and taking notes. With the entire library pitch black save for that one spot, the day falls to a bit more of a calm-yet-tense demeanor and no more troubles befall Marisa by the end of it. All is well as night falls — for now.


	5. Chapter 5

The next morning, just as the sun is half obscured by the horizon, Marisa awakens soundly in her bed. Not to get up, however; she seems to feel a bit lethargic. Simply lying there, half nude and messily covered in a quilt, eyes open and staring at the ceiling while half-open but not moving. She feels as if she weighs double and is paralyzed for some unidentifiable reason.

"Why can't I just sleep a little while longer?" she asks herself as she attempts it but can't seem to doze off once more. Not even turning her head, just closing her eyes and hoping that works. She simply lies there in a dazed state, waiting in vain.

Another hour passes before she opens her eyes again and realizes how futile of an attempt that was. With a great sigh and groan mix, she turns onto her side and continues to lie there for another minute. Eventually, she gets up and walks up to the most nearby window in nothing but her bloomers. It's bright despite only being morning; she scowls grumpily at the outside and bangs her head against the window lightly. This goes on for a minute, then she decides to sit at her desk and slump over.

She does nothing for another half hour, then decides she's hungry. Checking the pantry results in nothing but getting pelted by poorly-placed random objects that happened to fit in it. There's practically nothing that she can find that isn't wild herbs, which don't make a meal. She lets out a loud groan, then goes off to get dressed and retrieve her thieving bag. She heads out pondering on what to do about the eventless morning with an empty stomach, only taking a moment to decide to go and visit Reimu once more and hope that she's awake.

A few minutes later, and she's just in front of the torii on the edge of the steps where she also spies Reimu lying in the grass and staring up at the sky. Marisa lets her things down for a moment and waltzes over to her, then makes a sly smile, "Is this one of your 'purifying experiences'?"

In response, Reimu sweeps her arm under Marisa's foot, tripping her and making her yelp out in an awfully high pitch, then slamming face-first into the grass right beside her, "Quiet."

Marisa groans obnoxiously, then rolls onto her back and _coincidentally_ half on top of Reimu, who does not appreciate the gesture. She grabs Marisa's arm, pulls it against her chest, and - just as Marisa is about to react - puts her into a rather tight and painful arm-bar. Marisa's eyes shoot open and she starts to try and thrash around, yelling, "Hey, hey, hey, quit! Come on, I was just joking! Joking!" Reimu doesn't let up; she lifts her leg and throws it down on Marisa's hip and leg, then starts to pull harder!

Finally, Marisa fights back and starts to try and roll herself on top of Reimu, overpowering the leg and half of the hold, successfully getting on top! "You're going to ha-" she begins to taunt, but Reimu punches her in the face! "Okay, I was just coming over-" and again, another face punch! "Dammit, will you quit!? I'm-" and another! "This is getting-" once more! "Reimu!" and the last before she notices that the last one gave her a bloody nose. "Oh, it's _**on**_." she finally scowls.

She pins Reimu's arms down within moments, but is immediately taken over by her flipping the two over again, now Reimu is on top! She grabs her collar and starts to lift and bash her from and into the ground; Marisa retaliates by grabbing Reimu's face and punching her in the boob! This stuns her long enough to roll them over again, where she starts to slap Reimu in the face repeatedly, with her flinching. Finally, she parries a slap and yells, "Oh, we're playing dirty!?" She reaches for Marisa's ponytail and yanks her head down with it, then knees her in the ass, making her recoil in pain while Reimu rolls them over again.

Just then, Suika stumbles in and slurs, "Eeeeey! You two rastlin'? Lemme do it!" Both of the girls simultaneously plead "No" over and over; Suika scratches her head, takes a swig and asks, "Well'y not-t-t...?" stuttering with the last T.

Reimu comes up with an excuse "We, uh...were just finished!"

"Really? That was short." Marisa yells, but Reimu slaps her and tells her to shut up.

Suika shrugs, then stumbles away with a disappointed furl. The two get up and watch her walk away before they speak. Reimu goes first, "What was that?!"

Marisa turns to her and raises an eyebrow, "What?"

"You punched me in the boob!" Reimu points at the offended boob.

"You kneed me in the ass!" Marisa retorts.

"You punched me. In the boob." Reimu slowly reiterates.

"So what!?" Marisa yells, looking flabbergasted. Reimu pimp slaps her, making her nose start bleeding again. Marisa now looks a bit mad, "Hey, at least you aren't bleeding!"

Reimu looks down with her eyes half-closed and puts her arms down for just a few moments while Marisa holds her nose. With a heavy sigh, she apologizes quietly, "Sorry..." Marisa still looks a bit unconvinced, so she proceeds to hug her lightly and repeat, "Really."

Marisa also sighs and returns the hug, leaking a little on Reimu's shoulder in the process. "So..." she begins, mid-hug "...got anything to eat?"

Reimu slaps her back and gives a single, small chuckle, "Sure, let's go eat something." And so they stroll back into the shrine, shoulder to shoulder.

A while later, Reimu returns with two bowls of rice, to a waiting and partially undressed Marisa. She ignores the impropriety and sets them down. "Does it still hurt?" she asks while sitting down.

Marisa picks up a pair of chopsticks lying on the table, then begins to eat while responding, "A little; you?"

"No-" she starts to answer, but stops to ask, "Hey, aren't you going to...?"

Marisa looks clueless with her cheek filled. The two stare at each other for a few moments, then she shrugs and continues. Reimu rolls her eyes with a faint grin, then bows her head in prayer before beginning to eat.

The two finish quite a while later without uttering more than a couple pleasantries to each other. Marisa eventually just sits on the steps outside and stays almost motionless for at least ten straight minutes while Reimu cleans up the shrine a little. In fact, Marisa is so motionless that by the time Marisa comes to see what she's doing, there's a crow roosted on her head.

"Come on, seriously?" Reimu barges out with. Marisa turns her head with another raised brow, so Reimu continues, "I thought I cheered you up. Why are you still brooding?"

"I'm not!" Marisa pouts, turning her head back to stare down the walkway.

Reimu takes a seat beside her, "Did something else happen? Really, that was just yesterday and you're somehow still not happy?" she starts to ramble, which turns into a rant, "Do I have to spend _more_ on you? Jeez, you're like a spoiled little kid. I mean, I barely have enough for myself, never mind that at least 3 people are mooching off of me constantly and that gluttonous, lazy oni is staying here! You won't even tell me what's wrong with you, this is ridiculous! I know we're friends, but at least give a little back-" The crow interrupts her by screeching and squawking and such. "Get out of here you ravenous little rodent!" she screams at it, trying to swipe the thing as it flies off.

She settles back down and ends her rant, "Sorry, just a little frustrated."

The two remain silent for a bit, with Marisa barely reacting except for saying, "It happened again..."

"What...?" Reimu seems clueless, but gets a faint, grim feeling.

"Another dream...you know." Marisa looks increasingly more depressed and frustrated. "I just...can't figure it out. I can't!" she insists.

"Maybe it's something magical?"

Marisa perks up, but then sinks back down a moment later, "No, I've never seen anything like this in magic, before. This makes no sense, even for magic."

"But aren't dreams like that natural sometimes? I mean, I had nightmares like that when I was younger." Reimu starts to consider.

"But these are different! I know it! These don't feel natural, you know?" she argues. "They - they just don't!"

Reimu yields, "If you say so. I guess tea won't help this one, will it?"

Marisa sighs at the painfully inappropriate joke, but still gives a bit of a chuckle, "No, not this time."

Another minute later, she gets up and asks, "I think I need to rest. Can I use your bed?"

Reimu considers it, then agrees, "It's not much of a bed, though."

Marisa doesn't quite give a damn, but does have a faint glint of an idea in her eye. She runs back inside and scurries to find Reimu's bed, which is essentially more like a sleeping bag on a platform. She settles down, undresses down to her underwear and gets as comfortable as one can be on such a...firm bed. Within moments, albeit with a little trouble, she is fast asleep.

Hours pass without incident, though Marisa does wake up in a small sweat with a backache at around midday. As soon as she does wake up, Reimu is sitting by her and looks a bit worried. When asked about the look, she answers, "You were tossing around a lot. I was about to wake you up."

Marisa doesn't recall anything, but she does have a new idea. "Reimu, could you come by the torii with me?"

Reimu agrees and follows her out there, but hands Marisa her clothes, "Hey get a little decent first."

Marisa ignores her and just charges forth, so she gives up and follows. At the torii, Reimu eventually arrives with a little bit of an awkward expression. "So what is it?" she asks.

"There's something I've always wanted to do." Marisa begins to explain as she turns to Reimu, turning her back to the steps.

"And that is...?" Reimu leads her on, even using the hand waving.

Marisa lets out a large sigh, looks down, then gulps and swallows her pride with clenched fists. She grabs Reimu by the shoulders and lunges forth, kissing her squarely on the lips within moments.

Reimu gasps and panics internally, her entire body locks up out of shock for a split second, but she soon regains composure and instinctually pushes Marisa back with a hefty shove, following that up with a savage punch right into Marisa's chin, almost uppercutting her. This sends her almost leaping right off the top of the stairs, then quickly plummeting downwards. In the few seconds before she hits the ground, she braces herself and closes her eyes. In less than a second, she finally slams head-first into the stone steps, making a loud and clear snapping sound on the first hit. While silent and mostly expressionless at first, Reimu's eyes water up on the first snap, just as it sends shivers down her spine. The second comes and her jaw drops open, another time shivering. The third is a thud, and her hands cover her mouth while tears start to stream down her cheek. The next two thuds and she drops to her knees in disbelief.

As the thuds and snaps fade down the more she tumbles down the steps helplessly, Reimu starts to edge towards it and look down at the aftermath. She stands while beginning to quiver, then starts to walk down the steps. As she goes down, they get progressively bloodier and more frequently so. She goes down at least 20 of the steps before beginning to quietly chant, "Marisa...Marisa..." repeatedly. Shortly after, she glides all the way down, but stops short of the bottom where there lies Marisa, completely motionless. She freezes in place, only muttering, "No..." before rushing over and picking her up rather slowly. Marisa's head is obscenely crooked, as is one arm, and there lies a rather large and gruesome crack in her head with blood oozing from it profusely. Reimu hangs her head down, placing it slowly on Marisa's chest, repeatedly whispering, "I'm sorry."

She starts to sob and slowly collapse forward, "Ma...Marisa, why? I didn't..." She goes on for another minute, grieving over her, but finally resolves, "No, you can't go yet! I'll go...go get help!" She lets go, stands up, then starts to fly up the steps at top speed, going off to god-knows-where. Meanwhile the person who just happens to stroll by her body is none other than the ghastly Yuyuko. She approaches, rather slowly and carefully, saying, "Oh, you've met with a terrible fate, haven't you? I was beginning to suspect as much." Her expression changes from the usual lax and mischievous look to a wide-eyed glare of unmatched creepiness. She waves her fan, folds it, then points it at Marisa before opening it once more.

As soon as the fan opens, Marisa wakes up, back in the bed at the shrine, completely fine. She's woken up in a cold sweat, just barely avoiding sleep paralysis, and looks completely pale. Reimu, who is sitting beside her, puts a hand on her head and asks, "Hey, are you alright? **You were tossing around a lot. I was about to wake you up.** "

Marisa slowly turns her head, mouth agape, and stares at her almost in fear before snapping out of her trance, "Right...Reimu, don't hit me for this."

Reimu is about to question her, but she lunges up and kisses her again, the same as before. She immediately gets pushed away, with Reimu screaming, "Marisa! What the hell is wrong with you!?"

Marisa lies back down, "I just had to see."

Reimu scoffs, "What? There was absolutely no reason for you to do that!" There's a small silence, so she continues, "Just get out."

"Wait-" Marisa tries to argue, but gets interrupted.

"No, get out." Reimu insists. She starts to push Marisa out of the room along with her clothes.

Before she can be shoved out, Marisa blurts, "I was right!" Reimu stops for a moment and waits for her to carry on, "I was right, they're not dreams!"

"How do you know that?"

Marisa explains, "I know it sounds crazy, but listen. I knew I had to do something that I didn't know, something that nobody would expect, that would never normally happen. If what I did was different than what I imagined it would be, it would mean that it was real because I'd be wrong and that would never happen in a dream! That can only happen in real life!"

Reimu interrupts her, "Now wait, so you decided to...kiss me? There's something wrong with that."

Marisa acts coy, "Well, I mean, I've always wanted to try it."

While Reimu is blunt, "That's weird."

"Hey, but you believe me, right?"

"It's crazy enough to be true. Does that make it an incident?" Reimu looks quizzical.

"I...don't know. I don't know if you can solve it, but it would help. I mean, it doesn't really affect you too much."

"If you say so, but don't go and do anything crazy again."

Marisa nods to that and runs off, taking all of her things within just a few seconds, and leaving as suddenly as she appeared. Just a few minutes after she leaves, Reimu has another visitor: Yuyuko Saigyouji. She ascends from the bottom of the steps very slowly, and alone for some reason. Reimu can feel her coming even from inside, and so runs to the front door to greet her. She doesn't look quite as chipper or carefree as usual, instead wearing a serious frown. She approaches, the two exchange greetings, and Reimu asks why she's there.

"I've come on business. Something has the spirits upset, and it seems to be coming from around here, somewhere." She covers her mouth with her fan and proceeds inside, "I need to ask you a few questions...and if you'd like, we can have a little fun."

Reimu groans quietly, "No, I'm not in the mood at the moment. To play, that is. Marisa was here earlier."

"Oh, so I just missed her?" Yuyuko peers over her shoulder as she passes.

"Yeah, she left a few minutes ago. Something about an incident that she wanted to figure out herself. What, are you looking for her?" Reimu points at where she flew off to.

"It's not a problem, anyways. Have you noticed anything strange lately?" Yuyuko takes a seat at the nearby kotatsu that was being abused in the past few days.

"I think - hey, don't just invite yourself in. Anyways, Marisa was acting strange, but she's always been like that."

"Anything else?"

Reimu approaches the kotatsu as well, but remains standing, "No? I haven't noticed anything besides the usual. But now that I think about it, you may want to ask Suika or Yukari. They're usually in on this kind of stuff."

"I've spoken with Yukari, she told me that someone is making a mess of the 'Border Between Life and Death'."

"Sounds bad."

"It is, but it's a very small hole."

"Sounds good."

"Luckily, but it could get a lot bigger."

"Sounds bad."

"This is becoming predictable. So knowing her, it will probably stay under control until we fix the issue. The problem is that we don't know what's causing it."

"Right," Reimu nods "Is there something you're not telling me?"

"That Kirisame girl might be involved. The spirits have been rather lively, lately, and they tell me of a girl matching her in description."

"Don't the dead have no mouths?" Reimu jokes.

"Don't believe such superstitions. Now what do you think of all of this?"

Reimu has to sit and think for a minute, "Weird things happen around her all the time. I'm not surprised and don't care too much. Just tell me if it gets worse."

"As always, you're just a leisurely maiden. I'll go speak with the little oni, now." Yuyuko begins to leave, but turns back around just before disappearing to remind her, " **This is probably going to get serious. I hope it won't come to it, but try not to get too attached to your little friend.** " She then vanishes into thin air, leaving Reimu alone and a little more than troubled. She sits there with her mouth ajar and staring into the space where she was just moments ago.

Meanwhile, Marisa is flying far above the human village in clear skies. "Geez, still starving but no money. Guess it's time to-" she stops and feels around on her back and broom "wait, where's my bag? Shit." Being a little disgruntled, she decides to dive down into the village and steal some pocket change. After all, nobody will miss that, right? So she lands within a few seconds on top of some bloke's rooftop, then decides to hang upside-down from the roof just above a window to look into it like fucking Spider-man. There doesn't seem to be anybody inside, so she flips off the roof and back onto her broom, then forces the window open with raw force of will while hovering there. This breaks it in half, but it's still open nonetheless.

She slips in and drags her broom with her, then begins to snoop around the place in near total darkness. It's only after wandering around the whole house twice that she remembers people liking to hide things near where they sleep. She sneaks into the bedroom where only a single bed lies, still in almost total darkness. And then she flips the bed over completely with about as much tact as a rabies-infested dog. There lies nothing but a leather sack; she opens it and finds a handful of coins equaling about 500 Yen. Not much, but enough for a snack. She leaves it without putting the bed back and is about to leave altogether, but then sees an unfrosted cake just sitting there on a kitchen counter! "Well don't mind if I do!" she announces to herself as she scoops out an obscenely large chunk of it and devours it.

Just moments later, there's a noise at the front door! Marisa yelps, "Oh shit!" and runs for the back of the house, blasting a hole into some random wall and escaping on her broom! In the distance, she can hear a man yelling from inside the house; she flies off with a snicker, but then immediately turns through an alley and back onto a crowded main street. After she's in the clear for now, she begins to walk around the place normally while looking for a food stall or some such thing, taking only minutes to spot one with her favorite noodles: Somen! She dashes over to the stand that already has most of its seats filled and hops into the second-to-last tall stool.

The server and cook turns to her and finds himself quite surprised to see such an odd-looking person, especially due to her height. Nonetheless, he puts on a smile and speaks, "Well aren't you just the cutest! So what kind of Somen would you like?"

Marisa places the coins on the table, not paying attention to the comment, "What can I get for 500?"

His smile lightens to be more slight, "Well, it's not much, I can put some soy sauce and peppers on it and call that 400."

Marisa shrugs, then shifts all but one 100 Yen coin towards him and stuffs that in her shoe. Another minute of eventlessness ensues until the woman next to Marisa, wearing a rather bright blue Yukata of some sort speaks up, "My, how does a little girl like you enjoy Somen? You should really get something sweeter!"

Marisa glances at her and raises an eyebrow, "What?"

The woman puts a hand on her cheek, "Oh, it's just so salty! My kids won't eat any no matter what I do."

Marisa shrugs, "I just like them. More than Soba, they're too thick."

"Oh, you're still picky?"

"I don't think so, it's just the texture."

The woman returns to her own noodles with the passing question, "What's your name?"

"Marisa Kirisame." she replies just as the cook finishes up hers, placed on a wooden dish with two chopsticks lying beside it. She picks them up and starts to poke at the noodles, swirling them around in the soy sauce for a bit when the woman asks another question.

"Wait, Kirisame? Like the shop?"

Marisa jumps a bit, "Oh, um, Kirisame Magic Shop, yeah!"

"Oh, no, the other." she corrects.

"No, 'fraid not. I run a magic shop, not some run-down place like that!" she sounds more than a little nervous and even manages to almost choke on her food.

"Yeah, I know you!" she insists "You're their little girl that ran off one day, aren't you?"

Upon hearing that, Marisa quickly whips her head around and hushes her, looking quite serious about it. She does, and they both go back to eating for the next minute or two. Upon finishing rather quickly, Marisa jumps up without warning and starts to run off back into the crowd, leaving nothing behind but an empty dish and a puff of smoke. She doesn't stop sprinting through the crowds of people, shoving them out of the way and even tripping a couple to get away as quickly as possible, until she reaches the wall of some other miscellaneous building. There, she slams her back against the wall and takes a minute to breathe deeply, then continues onward for about 5 more feet. She comes across an alleyway of rather curious nature, there being some sort of glimmering object in the middle of it.

She walks carefully into the narrow passage, making sure nobody is following her, then crouches down at the thing. Too bad for her, it's just a 100 Yen coin. That, and a shadow is suddenly cast over her, coming directly from behind. Marisa freezes up almost instantly upon seeing the shadow; a sweat drop forms are her forehead and slowly drips down as her entire face flushes. She turns around very slowly to match her gaze with the figure behind her, and she mutters with the most shocked of expressions, " _Y-You...!?_ "

 


	6. Chapter 6

There stands she, behind Marisa, who gazes up and into her eyes to quietly exclaim, "Yu-Yukari!?" And so it was; she towers above Marisa with an existentially horrifying frown, her gaps in space blotting out the sun and casting a deep shadow on the alleyway. It only takes a stark second for Marisa to turn and bolt the other way, leaving behind nothing but a trail of smoke. However, something's wrong: she isn't being pursued. Marisa turns back to look at Yukari, who is still sitting there on the edge of a gap, staring at Marisa from afar. She isn't giving chase or simply pulling Marisa back, but in fact is waiting patiently to see what happens. Even though she could very easily do it, she doesn't. Marisa suddenly changes her mind and figures that if Yukari is so sure that she would trust her, there must not be that much to worry about. Perhaps that's exactly what Yukari wants her to think and is just being deceptive again, but the chance between those is immeasurable and probably unimportant regardless.

Marisa takes a deep breath and starts to calmly walk back towards Yukari, or at least trying as hard as she can to look calm. In reality, she should be sweating. When the two meet face-to-face once more, there is a long silence. Yukari ends up being the one to break the silence, "You're scared, aren't you? That's suspicious, you know."

Marisa makes an odd face, like a twist between frustration and surprise; she mutters, "You never appear without a good reason."

Yukari chuckles the chuckle of a haughty hag, "Well now, straight to the point? I suppose that's like you, but don't test my tolerance."

Marisa scoffs and thinks to herself, _"Look who's talking, bitch! I oughta punch you in your smug face. You know wh-"_

Her thoughts are interrupted by Yukari's hand suddenly grazing right past her cheek, hard enough to leave a red mark right on the edge and leave a gust of wind to blow past her. Marisa freezes in place, looking startled but not quite frightened at this development. Yukari retracts her hand and loses her smile, "You didn't even flinch. How odd, most kids your age would be terrified to die, but you just seemed to be surprised that I didn't do it. I guess that's all, then."

Yukari begins to leave, halfway passing through a gap. However, she stops a moment before departing and reminds Marisa, "Oh, and you should pay a visit to the Moriyas. They're still recovering from when you and Ms. Kazami beat them up a few months ago." And with that, she vanishes without giving Marisa anything but a split moment to respond. So, she is left standing there, completely unable to comprehend what just happened. Had she done something terrible? Maybe made the wrong person mad? Maybe Yukari just wanted information out of her, but about what; did she get what she wanted? These questions run through her head several times, letting about 20 minutes go by before she remembers her current objective and continues for the mansion in the hopes that they won't try to destroy her.

Turns out her suspicions on their attitude were well-placed. When she arrives at the mansion and makes it past Meiling, she encounters a downtrodden Sakuya at the front door who tells her, "Come back some other time. I'm afraid we've got our hands full at the moment."

"Wait, what? The place was fine just recently!" Marisa argues.

Sakuya sighs and looks practically resigned at this point, "It seems Lady Knowledge is having quite the fit with something, and has told us not to let anyone interfere, even the mistress. I fear that if I let you in, she would end up destroying half of the building."

"Strange," Marisa remarks "I was just on my way to ask for her help with something. Maybe the two are related?"

Sakuya now looks disgruntled, "I doubt that. Now please, leave before I have to make an example out of you. I won't go as easy on you."

Hesitantly, Marisa agrees and walks away into the center of the courtyard, where a fountain lies. When she hears Sakuya close the door behind her, she waits for just a few moments before mounting her broom once more and taking into the sky, going straight up and gaining as much altitude as possible. "Well, I have always wanted to try this!" she exclaims while several hundred feet from the ground and looking down at the SDM. She turns and plunges straight into a nosedive, aiming at the ceiling of the area that houses Patchouli's library. In just a few seconds, she descends at a velocity so great that she can barely keep her broom from shaking or her hat and various hidden potion bombs from flying off. She pulls out her Mini Hakkero and points it forward, screaming, "This is such a bad idea! I love it!" moments before blasting a huge hole in the ceiling and crashing through the rubble, into the dark library and onto the floor with a very audible thud.

It would be completely inexcusable if Patchouli couldn't hear that commotion as well, and it _pisses her off_. Patchouli puts down the chalk she's using at the moment to draw some sigils on the floor in an explicitly satanic fashion and heads over to the crash site to investigate. There and about five minutes after, Marisa is just recovering from slamming through the roof and almost into the much harder floor. Luckily, she doesn't appear to be too badly damaged besides some cranial bleeding. And some internal abdominal bleeding. And a couple broken arms. And a dislocated shoulder. Okay, so she isn't very "alright".

" _Uuuuuuuuhhhhh..._ " Marisa groans in pain while she lies mangled on the floor.

In a bout of sadism, Patchouli spends the next few minutes silently casting a healing spell over Marisa, allowing her to remain alive for the moment albeit in a very, _very_ large amount of pain.

"Aaaaaaaatatatatatataa!" Marisa stands up, stretching and making weird noises that further disgruntle Patchouli, who slaps her in the face in the middle of her stretch. "'Ey, what's your...?" she's about to complain, but notices that it's Patchouli and quickly switches her attitude, "Oh, Patches!"

Yet another slap to the face. Patchouli grumbles at her, "Don't call me that. What are you doing here?"

Marisa endures it, "Well, I actually meant to come and ask for your...help..." she hesitates, then takes a quick step back to anticipate the reaction before continuing, "...but Sakuya wouldn't let me in." She goes from faux-glad to worried in just a glance.

"You..." Patchouli starts to groan, hunched over and nearly steaming "...you want my help? After everything, and this?"

Before she can blow, Marisa starts begging for mercy, "Wait, wait, wait! We're just wasting time here, you won't get anything out of killing me! Please, just calm down and listen!" she backs up with her hands in the air, gesturing surrender.

Patchouli doesn't listen; she starts to levitate off the ground very slightly, opening up her tome and glowing very dimly while whispering in tongues. Marisa summons her broom, hops on it as it flies towards her, and starts to back up with it, rising in the air, prepared to reluctantly duke it out. Just as soon as she can get enough distance from Patchouli, the latter spits out the words, " **Rage Trilithon, High Level**."

" _Oh, come on."_ Marisa thinks to herself about how unlucky this is. Following the words, the ground begins to rumble as a whirlwind of stone begins to orbit around Patchouli. Her entire form is covered in the debris that conjures itself into existence and is risen from the ground below, when the shell suddenly shatters and sends boulders the size of Marisa's entire body hurling forward into all directions! It begins to form a tornado like shape while all of the boulders fly forward in a cone towards Marisa, who just barely manages to get out of the way of the first wave of rocks! Several more come close to her, but change direction mid-flight and edge away from her. Another comes in from the diagonal right, so she dives down but almost slams into one! She grazes by it, when another seemingly comes out of nowhere and almost smacks her in the head! She does a half-flip to dodge it but ends up upside-down and witnesses another boulder fly right past her vision. She flies that way, away from Patchouli while entering an empty spot where she rights herself and takes a look at what Patchouli's planning. That is, until she turns around and aims the vortex of rocks at her again. "Come **ON**!" Marisa screams "I told you I don't want to fight!"

"You brought this on, yourself." Patchouli coldly argues, preparing another card in case this fails. The barrage of rocks starts to slow down over the next ten seconds, but Marisa is still having a fairly hard time keeping up with the pace of the attack. Eventually, several rocks from the front sides close in on Marisa, then suddenly switch and fly towards her! Marisa makes a bold move and does and Aileron Roll directly into them, squeezing through the tight space left between them while edging upwards and making it through just in time for the rocks to collide with one another. She then looks back, sits forward even more, and charges upwards with as much force as she can muster! Within seconds, she's out of the range of spell and Patchouli's line of sight for the moment. She takes out her Mini-Hakkero and points it downwards, contemplating whether or not to attack. It doesn't take long for Patchouli to notice her up there, though, so Marisa abandons the thought and flies back down and to the right, hoping that she can outrun Patchouli's turn speed. This isn't so; she can keep up and then some. Within moments, another storm of boulders is heading right towards her! She dives down and onto the floor, taking cover behind a bookshelf that absorbs all of the damage for her.

"Hmph." Patchouli scoffs, smirking ever-so-slightly at making Marisa become so defensive. "I know you can't hold out like this, witch. We both know your defense is horrible, and that you can only beat me because of your counter-attacks. But since you seem so intent on losing, let me _speed up the process_!" Rage Trilithon finally wears out, with all of the rocks hovering around her and slowing to a stop. Patchouli pulls out another card, then announces, " **Earth and Fire Sign: Pyroclasm!** " The rocks still floating around, as well as those embedded in the walls and floor from the previous attack all catch on fire! They quickly morph into giant balls of blazing, charred rock that rise back up, around Patchouli, and wait for Marisa to come back up.

"Poor defense, huh? I guess that's what someone who didn't know the value of speed would say!" Marisa retorts, picking her broom back up with a renewed vigor and riding straight up! Immediately, the pyroclastic meteorites begin to rapidly spin, giving off massive and lingering embers, then charge right at Marisa from multiple angles! Marisa slows to a stop, then reaches under her skirt and pulls out a jar! She casts it into the air and, just before the rocks hit, blasts it with a simple star shot, making it explode in a huge ball of light! The pyroclasts are incinerated by the blast, yet Marisa flies out of the light unharmed, prompting several other rocks to zip towards her, spraying out fire and fragments of rock that linger behind while they give chase. Marisa dives back down into the bookshelves as they all begin to line up behind her, yet more seem to erupt from the walls and fly towards her, forcing her to change direction constantly. As she randomly skims through the maze of shelves, the rocks crash into them and start to topple each one over. The explosions from each impact almost reach her, but she's too fast!

Meanwhile, the devils that maintain the library are witnessing the destruction and staring dumbfoundedly while all of their hard work is immediately undone. Not to be underminded, they begin (altogether) to leap into the air and start attacking Marisa as well! They unleash large volleys of violet bubble shots that end up nearly walling up against Marisa, who looks towards them and thinks, _"Oh, now_ _ **these**_ _I can hurt."_ With that, she takes out her Mini-Hakkero and spins it around on her finger, letting the thing build up energy before snatching it in one hand and aiming towards the wall while yelling, " **Master Spark!** "

Her giant, thick, pulsating, hot beam pierces the wall of bubbles and pops each one simultaneously, then goes through and coats each one of the devils in its cleansing, boiling light; they all scream and drop like flies, all falling one by one with the residue of the blast coating their bodies entirely. Their smoldering bodies crash into the ground, then are further pelted by Patchouli's own attack! She berates them, " **You idiots!** Don't interfere with my battles - furthermore, you failed despite having the advantage! You're all lucky I don't stockade you for this!" Marisa takes the time she's wasting on them to try to hide in the bookshelves and darkness to avoid the pyroclasts long enough for the spell to time out. Patchouli looks around after berating her servants, exclaiming, "You can't hide from me, witch!" She starts to berserk, sending rocks flying in all directions like a volcanic eruption! Marisa keeps herself upright and confident, letting the shelf protect her no matter how many rocks smash into it. Eventually, Patchouli runs out of energy and has to cancel the spell. Marisa comes back out at last and reveals herself with a small burst of danmaku. Patchouli glares over at her as she approaches, but is practically exhausted by now.

"You know, there's a reason nonspells exist." Marisa reminds her, approaching while standing on her broom.

Patchouli snaps at her, "Shut up."

"Look at you, you're about to keel over!" Marisa argues. No response. "Come on, sit down. I just needed to talk." Marisa extends her hand.

Patchouli looks at her, the hand, then looks away. She closes her eyes and tries to catch her breath, but struggles and ultimately decides against her interests to take a break. "Fine, but you better...better be gone...by the time I...recover." She takes Marisa's hand, and the two drop down to where she was previously working on some sort of magical circle.

Patchouli floats down to and sits in a large, antique-looking rocking chair absolutely covered in blankets and pillows and other fluffy objects while Marisa simply stands next to her. In front of them and on the floor is an enormous and intricate, but also quarter-unfinished magical circle made of chalk and covered in candles with a stack of books in the center. They stay idle for a minute or two, with Marisa trying to think of how to start, and Patchouli slowly becoming more aggravated. Finally, Marisa manages to think of it, "So I've had this problem lately. I think it's magical, so I came to you..."

Before she can continue, Patchouli interrupts, "Stop. How long has this been going on?"

Marisa stammers a bit, "Ah, um...well, I think it's been a few days? It's kind of hard to keep track."

Patchouli lies silent in thought, but eventually tells her, "Go on."

"Well, I can't really...die." There's a long silence. Marisa eventually explains, "Well, it's that each time I _do_ die, it just sends me back to the last time I slept."

"...that could be it..." Patchouli wonders. Marisa seems inquisitive, but Patchouli simply shoos her away, "You should go now, I have some things to do."

"Wait, I didn't come here just to get beat up and thrown out!" Marisa exclaims, forcing Patchouli into her seat from which she was about to rise.

Patchouli isn't pleased by this, but she sighs and asks, "What else did you want?"

Marisa holds her by the shoulders and looks dead on, "I need your help. I don't think I can get to the bottom of this myself."

" _Obviously._ " Patchouli snidely remarks. "I think I was going to do that anyways, but if you insist on doing something..." She takes a moment to think, "...Go and visit a few people."

Marisa raises an eyebrow and lets go of her, "What people?"

Patchouli stands up and raises her arms, projecting a light picture of shinigami, a cherry blossom, a stopwatch, a bat, and a scroll, "There are several people you should speak to: The one who carries the departed across Styx, the embodiment of passing, the trickster who controls time itself, the lord of fate, and the keeper of all records." The light pictures disappear, "Take your leave, I have nothing else to say." She steps backwards skulking into the darkness; one swip of her hand puts out the candles around them and leaves Marisa alone in the darkness.

Marisa departs, understanding that she won't get much else out of this visit. While cruising out, she thinks to herself, _"It's a good thing I can tell people about this. Makes things a lot easier. Now, who to go after first? I think she mentioned...Yuyuko? ...I know Sakuya was one, but she isn't in a good mood. I think I'll just go after her first..."_ With her mind made up, Marisa makes her way out of the building through the front door and flies straight up, aiming for the clouds! A minute into driving upwards, she starts to rapidly lose speed and breath, plateauing near the cloudline and barely able to breath from the sudden drop in air. Despite this, she chugs on and makes her way above the clouds, then starts to search for the gate to the Netherworld. On the way, she's able to at least admire the view apart from the colorful spots that appear in her vision from time to time.

Above the clouds, the sun is blazingly bright and hangs near the west, with just a few hours before it sets on the horizon. No coloration has approached yet except for a vague darkening in the east, where a few dots of light can be made out. Amongst the light, she can see the bright glint of Venus ahead, which makes itself seem able to be reached. The clouds below that she flies past like a bullet reflect the sunlight and end up being almost as bright, if not for their depth. Thankfully, they haven't accumulated massively and have thinned since the last storm, making the entire landscape seem like a huge plain of cotton. The closer she gets to the sky, however, the more polarizing it gets. Marisa can feel her limbs stiffening from the sheer cold, yet her skin almost burning from the sun, and both mixing into a feeling of undeniable pain that could almost take away from the experience. Aware of how close this could put her to a death flag, she shakes away her infinite gazing into the sky and focuses on searching for the gate.

In fact, it happens to have appeared right in front of her while she was sidetracked. With a glint in her eye, Marisa kicks her broom and forces it into a burst of speed so great that it immediately sends her hat flying, then falling into the clouds below. She doesn't mind and only focuses on getting there. Upon arrival, she skids to a halt and hovers in front of it, waiting to see if anyone was going to ambush her. Luckily, the coast seems clear. The gate is still practically destroyed from last time, so getting in is about as easy as breaking a window. Going through the gate makes the entire landscape instantly change, and the heat to totally disappear from the atmosphere. She comes to the Netherworld's steps and finds herself still pleasantly surprised by the gentle snowfall. She feels like wasting time here to play around in the fluff, but has to stay on track, so she starts to slowly scale the steps on foot rather than by flight just to savor the pale background.

Eventually, she runs into Youmu on a jogging routine down the stairs. They wave at each other, although Youmu's isn't a warm and friendly one. She stops right beside Marisa and asks, "What are you doing here? I though we told you that it's dangerous."

"Ah, well...!" Marisa throws a hand behind her head and stretches her back out while she thinks about how to respond. "I think I need to speak to Yuyuko, that's all."

Youmu gives her a dirty look as soon as she says the name. After a moment of silence, she responds, "She's out at the moment. If you have a message, give it to me."

She's about to continue jogging, when a voice arrives from behind, "Don't be so sure about that..." An ethereal hand places itself on Marisa, who's turned to face down the steps now. She whips around and yells, "Hey, what's up with you guys and sneaking up on me!"

Yuyuko begins to materialize before their eyes, completing in mere seconds. Youmu bows and apologizes, "I'm sorry, Master, I didn't notice you."

Yuyuko waves it off, "Don't be so tense! Just go do your thing and I'll talk to our guest." She turns her gaze to Marisa as Youmu nods and runs off. Yuyuko seems almost as serious as the first time they met and gives off a dreadful aura unlike what one regularly feels from her. She puts a mask on it, but anybody could see that her ditzy exterior is utterly transparent by now. "Come." she beckons, floating up the stairs "I'll have to talk with you...privately."

Marisa gulps nervously, but ends up following her up the stairs and into the white mist that shrouds Hakugyokurou.

 

**Author's Note:**

> Remember to comment/review! It helps with both motivation and development!
> 
> If you enjoy my work, you can find more on my Tumblr page at: darkbeetlebot.tumblr.com


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